Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Dust in the Wind | The Writings | Ecclesiastes 4

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Is your significance tied to your work? Do you struggle to have meaningful relationships? Do you have the humility to listen for wisdom? In today's episode, Tanya looks at Ecclesiastes 4, showing how each of these three issues stem from our heart's pursuit of temporary satisfaction. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Ecclesiastes 4

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. When the lead guitar player of Kansas was interviewed about their song, Dust in the Wind, this is what he had to say. More people seem to identify with what I said in that song, and that really surprised me, because in a way, that's kind of a dismal song. He said, I mean, this is not Kansas. When he was going to record it or pitch it to the studio, he said, I'm really hesitant to even play this one, but they asked me if I had any more. So I played the song on acoustic guitar, and everybody kind of stood there and said, we need to be doing this song. And I was amazed. In fact, I rejected the whole idea.

I actually fought with the band over the fact that we shouldn't do this song. I thought, this is not us. Well, it shows you what I know about the value of a song, because it turned out to be our biggest hit ever. Dust in the Wind goes right with Ecclesiastes chapter four. In Ecclesiastes 4, we have the voice of a preacher, and he's referring to an observation that he's making about how people are pursuing really meaningless things. And he points out the underlying motivations and thoughts behind these everyday, foolish things that we do. It's actually kind of embarrassing what he calls out in us, but it's true. And then he says, all of it is like chasing the wind. And so you're listening to all of Ecclesiastes 4, and you're kind of left like you are when you listen to the song by Kansas.

there's a feeling at the end like, huh, that was really profound, but I don't really know what to do with that. Except in Ecclesiastes 4, you have the whole rest of the Bible to work through that. But there are three main observations that the preacher makes in Ecclesiastes chapter 4, what we're going to talk about today. The first one is the preacher observes how he sees people working just to get something better than what their neighbors have. The second observation is that people think they're stronger when they're alone rather than trying to do things with help and support. And the third observation that he makes is that people who are older and more experienced think they're too good to listen to the wisdom of those who are young and poor. And for each of these observations, he repeats, it's meaningless. It's like chasing the wind.

What are you chasing? It might be a thing. It might be a season like when I get to that stage of life. life, everything will be so much better. It might be chasing someone that someone else has or having something better than they have. Well, you can probably guess what the preacher would say. It's meaningless. It's like chasing the wind. You know that feeling. You get it and you're already unhappy. It might be depressing if it wasn't A, true, and B, pointing us to a greater need and a deeper craving that we have that actually can be satisfied. So let's look at chapter four in the conversation.

starting with verse four, then I noticed that most people are motivated to succeed because they envy their neighbors. But this too is meaningless, like chasing the wind. Have you ever thought about it like that? That perhaps we're working just so that we can have what other people have or have something better than what they have or have more recognition than they have. Whether you work for yourself, someone else, or for your family, work has a way of revealing our radical insecurities. And if we build our careers to make a name for ourselves, we will have a day of reckoning because at some point, that identity will come into question. Maybe your company will get sold and you don't know who you are when you don't have that thing to do every day. Or maybe when your kids leave home and go to college,

you won't know who you are when you don't have lunches to pack and people to drive around. There's actually no job that escapes the identity crisis. If we build who we are on what we do and how we're doing it better than someone else. The sinful desires of the human heart lead us to find significance outside of God, and this comes with competition and strife. Either we do better than someone else, or we keep someone else from doing better, and that's how we find our sense of security. In mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis had his own observation about this. He said pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say people are proud of being rich or clever or good looking, but they're not. They're proud of being richer,

or cleverer, or better looking than others. We can either see our work or our callings as a service to our neighbors, who were called to love more than ourselves, or we can see it as a way to compete with our neighbors and never be happy, but always have something to do because we're chasing the wind. Our acceptance of this brokenness that we take to Jesus keeps us coming back to his feet, asking him to transform our desires and make them his own. This takes us to the preacher's second point, that people think they're stronger alone and think it's actually a sign of weakness to ask for help. When actually the reverse is true. The preacher talks about this starting in verse 9. Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls,

the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. Well, sometimes we hear this heard or read at a wedding, and the whole part about two people lying close together can keep each other warm, but I think we're supposed to be this metaphorically.

We need other people to be a spark, to light our fire, to support us, to have our back, especially when it comes to our faith. Sometimes another believer can say something that opens our eyes to the gospel and to preach it to ourselves again. Sometimes someone can say something that makes us want to read our Bible or pray because they just draw our hearts back to Jesus. They can help us see things that we can't see. maybe a way forward or a path that we need to get off of right away. They can re-light a flame in us to be connected to God. Being with people is something we can be intentional about, especially if you're going through something new or different.

For example, Eric and I are getting ready to send our second child, but our first baby girl to college next month. And I have a feeling this one's going to hit different. We had dinner last night with people who are doing the exact same thing. So I said to Eric this morning, why don't you ask him if he wants to meet with you or read a book together this fall since you guys are going through the same things as dads? Maybe women are more likely to talk about those things with their friends, but guys, you need support too. Younger guys, maybe you're already doing this and doing it well. Make sure to keep those relationships going, even though your lives may get really full and busy over the next few years. The third thing the preacher says is as meaningless as chasing the wind is thinking we're above the advice of others, particularly those who are less experienced or those who have less than we do.

Verse 13, it is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice. I actually know lots of old and foolish kings, but that old and foolish gang is going to be replaced by a poor and inexperienced youth who will himself become an old and foolish king. king. And the whole cycle repeats itself. And this, the preacher says, is all meaningless, like chasing the wind. Maybe you've heard success, breeds complacency, breeds failure. The only way for Esther prevent this from happening to us is to keep learning, keep growing, to give up our propositions if we have to. Why? Well, the preacher would say, because we're completely replaceable. It's not a super comforting thought, is it? But yet it's comforting in a sobering way. Because if we're replaceable in things of this earth, then things of this earth don't have the power to define our future.

So when they fall apart, we're okay. Our hope and the future isn't in the wind. It's in something much better. 1 John 2, 15 to 17 explains what lasts and what doesn't last. Do not love this world, it says, nor the things it offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the father in you. for the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.

These are not from the Father, but are from the world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. Jesus showed us what this kind of life looked like. He told his disciples, I do as the Father commands me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. What the Father commanded Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. He took the lowest position possible so we would know true love.

True love, acceptance, forgiveness, eternal peace. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we can have these things all the time. No wind chasing involved. How can the security Jesus gives you transform your thoughts and your attitudes? I wrote a little prayer and I'm going to share it with. you as we end. Lord, I confess that I find keeping up with the world far more fascinating than keeping close to you, but this is because my desires are distorted by sin. Only you can help me see what truly matters. Only you can satisfy my longings and set my feet firmly on a rock.

Light up your eternally satisfying path so I can obey you. Help me use my plans for your glory today, so why don't wake up tomorrow, finding that I was only chasing the wind?